A/N: Sad chapter incoming.

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Sasori

Sasori felt a little bad as he rode deeper into town on his motorcycle after work. Nobody's checked on the demons in ages. Some friends we are. As he slid to a stop before a street light, he reflected on the implications of the fact that he was only going to meet them because he had something to say. It was really dickish of us to not check in after the NPCs gained awareness. That change must have upended their livelihoods. They might have needed help, but we didn't even ask, much less offer any. If we ever were allies, we aren't anymore.

He meditated on the nature of friendship all the way to the bar. When he got there, before stepping through the doors, he steeled himself against the unpleasant effects of the demons' auras. He also reminded himself to be ready for anything.

The first thing he noticed was that the bar's layout had changed. A new section had been carefully separated from the rest, roped off by those movable poles that might be used to keep people from wandering into areas of renovation. Sasori found a discreet location to watch from. His suspicions were confirmed; that section had been newly set aside for the demons. It was obviously a slapdash job, not a permanent fixture, but in time it might become one. Thank goodness. If they lost their livelihoods because of us, then... Then I wouldn't feel safe showing up to this meeting.

The demon that he had arranged a meeting with said that they would be in a red-haired female form. Sasori soon spotted a demon matching that description. He made his way to the restricted area, which was guarded by someone who faced away from the demons and wore earplugs. He gave Sasori a wary look. Sasori had seen people wander over in a zombielike daze after getting too good a look at the demons, so he understood what this man was wary of. He made a show of looking past the guard and pointing. The guard waved him through.

"Nice arrangement you have here," he said while sitting opposite the unoccupied demon. Nearby demons scooted out of eavesdropping range. Even so, Sasori felt the smallness of the space on his skin. It would be safest to assume that every demon in the bar right now can hear what I say.

"Not too different from the former," his conversation partner agreed, or seemed to. Her words sounded forced.

"Yes, it's been difficult figuring out how much has really changed," Sasori murmured. "It's been a full week, so some of them are getting their feet back, but most of the civilians still seem to be in shock and denial. They'll go along with whatever practices previously existed for now, but when they snap out of it..."

Her eyes softened. "It's easier for us, isn't it? We already had firmly established routines. Your group had nothing but invisibility, and that's gone now."

Translation: I'm willing to forgive you just this once. Don't pass it up. But Sasori didn't want to have forgiveness handed to him. He wanted to earn it. "We can handle ourselves. We have done a lot of scouting; as far as we can tell, our group is safe. The most obviously unusual members are covered by shock and denial, while the few of us who look mostly normal have been accepted. We've been restructuring our activities so that going out in public is done mostly by the normal-looking people. But overall, the Akatsuki is in a rather fortunate position. We have spent the past week preparing for catastrophic effects rather than fighting off a wave of them."

"I see. That is definitely fortunate."

Translation: You jackasses prioritized preparation over checking on your supposed allies? "Those preparations include designing a form of local government that will hopefully stabilize the positions of all magical beings in the area. We're asking for different kinds of magical beings to elect a single person to serve as a representative. When the civilians break out of their shock, they're going to have questions. Having representatives to answer those questions will hopefully prevent chaos from erupting."

The demon pursed her lips. "Who will lead this form of local government?"

Entering risky waters... "There is no leadership, really. Each representative looks after the interests of their own group. We're basically just taking the leaders that each group already has, giving them colorful badges, and hooking them up with the mayor so that he knows who to talk to if there are any problems."

"Who awards these badges?"

"The person who makes them."

"That would be me!" said the demon boy a second and a half before he actually materialized next to their table. He held up a golden badge that said Regional Guardian: Demon Division. "I invented the first badge just for myself, but then these people started saying that others should have badges too! So I said, fine, whatever. I can be generous." He showed off the Ghost Division badge pinned to one of the leather straps crossing over his chest.

"Ghost... Division? You are a ghost?"

"Nope. I'm the one who looks after the ghosts. I found this haunted hospital, see, and moved in and started fixing things up. I've been doing that for a while now. But recently, some other ghosts were discovered. I decided that since I'm already looking after all these other ghosts, I might as well look after the new ones, too. I made a badge to make it official." He frowned. "It was supposed to be a joke at first, but they took it seriously." He stared off into space for several seconds, then shook his head. "Which is more fun anyway! I'm totally not mad about having my joke ruined or anything."

"You're already unique in so many other ways. Do you really need to be the only one with a shiny badge too?" Sasori asked.

"It's not that! It's that nobody thought it was funny!"

"Did you want us to take you seriously as guardian of the ghosts, or to laugh? You can't have both."

"Eh, this whole government thing is more fun," the demon muttered resentfully.

Sasori glanced up at the succubus. He found her staring back at him. Whatever amusement she might have felt towards the demon boy's antics had vanished. This was a business meeting, not a casual coffee date. Sasori cleared his throat. "With that settled... How many badges have you awarded so far?"

The boy began to count on his fingers. "One for the Godly Division, one for the Visitor Division - I assume you mean the gold badges only - one for the Vampire Division... Technically my own badge isn't 'awarded,' but it is gold so I'll count it... Oh, and a badge for the Human Division. That makes five. You and that guy who talks to spirits have yet to get votes from your proposed constituents."

"Living bicycles. My proposed constituents are living bicycles. They cannot speak for themselves," Sasori quickly explained to the succubus.

She let it go. "Human Division?"

"Two of their guys told the mayor they'd be on the hook if any ordinary human was harmed by any magical being whatsoever," the demon boy explained.

She shot Sasori a dangerous look. "Your people?"

"One, the mayor agreed to it. Two, an ordinary person with no ability to defend themselves against magic would have real trouble serving as a guardian of anybody. Three, we're the most humanlike of all magic users in town," Sasori argued. He had prepared these arguments in advance. "That position is special. That one will require the most frequent and detailed interactions with the town's leadership out of any of them. The mayor will effectively be in charge."

"Will he?"

"Yes, that's the plan."

The succubus laid her hands flat on the table and leaned forward. Surrounding conversations immediately cut off. The question she asked next sounded deafening by comparison. "How much did your prophet influence this?"

Sasori's heart skipped a beat despite knowing that the answer was innocent. Angry demons were just that intimidating. "He influenced absolutely none of it. Aside from urging us to pick whoever we wanted to represent the gods, he's been uninvolved."

The succubus sat back. "You humans designed this plan with zero oversight or restraint?"

Oh shit. I used the wrong concept of innocence. My answer made her mad. "Well, he never objected to any part of it, and the whole idea is that everyone else will elect their own people."

"Except for all of the parties that cannot speak for themselves. Those parties shall conveniently be managed by your own group."

Sasori narrowed his eyes. Okay, she's starting to piss me off. "I am the only reason we know of the bicycles. They helped me depose the man who used to own the auto shop, and in exchange I turned the place into a combined auto shop slash bicycle repair clinic. I'm their doctor, and we already have lines of communication established through my motorcycle. I am the most qualified representative for those bikes and don't you dare insinuate otherwise. Yahiko, likewise, is the only person who has ever spoken to nature spirits. And our prophet is the only prophet wandering around right now, so the person most qualified to interact with the gods without fleeing in terror or wildly misinterpreting everything is going to be a member of his same group. It is convenient, yes, and nothing more."

The succubus narrowed her eyes back. "More convenient than reaching out to your supposed friends?"

Sasori's anger dissipated. Right. That's the real issue under discussion here. I'd forgotten. But traces of his anger must have lingered, because he said without thinking, "It does take some time to get around to reaching out to people who never reached out to you."

He regretted it immediately. But instead of pouncing on him and tearing out his soul, the succubus sagged in her seat. Sasori realized he'd inadvertently said something accurate. The vampires, for all their hard edges, go to the trouble of spying on us every night. The books, for all their unknown dangers, moved in with us. They might not be the warmest and cuddliest of friends, but they care. The demons, in contrast, have never been anything but helpful after that incident with the first succubus. But they don't care about us. A surly jerk who puts in genuine effort is worth a thousand kind souls who don't.

"There was no need," she murmured.

"So our two groups are to contact each other only when emergency demands it? Alright then. I'll inform our leadership that you demons are storm-weather friends."

"I shall inform our leadership of the same."

Sasori thought he probably should protest, but no protests leaped to his lips. Instead he asked, "Is there any emergency afoot right now?"

"There is not," the succubus replied. "You?"

"No."

That was that. There was nothing more to say. Sasori and the demon boy walked out of the bar in sad silence. Well, Sasori was sad. The demon boy seemed as cheerful as ever. "That would make a good scene in a movie!"

"Don't make a movie out of it," Sasori told him.

"I'll do whatever I want. Toodles!" The demon boy turned to smoke and flew away.

Sasori sat on his motorcycle and sighed. He patted the handlebars. "Sometimes I envy your simple lives."

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A/N: This is a fictionalized representation of a real discussion that I had with a friend yesterday. We first met years ago, when she and I both had difficult circumstances to deal with. In the years since, I've made real progress on my problems. She hasn't. That's not her fault; her problems include poverty, jerkish family members, and other things that the person afflicted usually can't escape from without help. But the fact that none of her many problems are her fault does not change the equally real fact that we don't have much in common anymore. Our friendship was founded on common struggle. Now that I'm no longer struggling, it feels like we continue to talk more from habit than from any other reason.

Perhaps it's not as common as fair-weather friendship, but I think that storm-weather friendship should be a saying in its own right.